Can't open my downloads folder

Your downloads folder should still be onboard then if you haven't emptied your Recycle Bin - otherwise it would have prompted you to approve deleting a folder which is too large for the Recycle Bin.

Look in C under your User Name to see if the Downloads folder is there. If not type Downloads in Start Search box to see where it might have been moved by rightclicking result to look at Properties location.

The error you got may only mean the Downloads favorite shortcut has lost it's default association, which can be fixed by restoring the association for LNK files here: Default File Type Associations - Restore

Man, I'm really running out of ideas of things to do. I downloaded and ran Malwarebytes. That found two things but apparently they weren't linked to my problem. The only thing that's changed is that my downloads folder icon is now just a white sheet. I found someone else who had the same problem (here Can't Access "Downloads" Folder) and he was told to do a default file type restore. He did it on the library-ms file and that worked for him. I did that and it didn't fix anything. I also tried the .exe and .lnk but those didn't help either. Does anyone have more ideas?

Can you make a new folder called "downloads" on C and direct new downloads to that folder by selecting it as the default destination in your browser?

That was what i ended up doing for now. Still have the non-working downloads folder, but I made a Downloads folder inside of my documents. Just checked and that's where chrome is putting stuff so I think this problem is manageable. I just hope whatever it is isn't bigger than that. Plus it really bugs me that this stumped me

I gave you the Forum's tutorial on how to recreate the Downloads folder. Option Two restores missing User folders:

gregrocker said:

Otherwise you'll need to recreate the shell User Downloads folder using Option Two here: User Folders - Restore Default Location

I must have missed the link the first time you posted it. That fixed the problem. Thank you so much!